• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.431-446
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• 2017

As concrete is most usable material in construction industry it's been required to improve its quality. Nowadays, nanotechnology offers the possibility of great advances in construction. In this study, buckling of horizontal concrete columns reinforced with Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles is analyzed. Due to the presence of ZnO nanoparticles which have piezoelectric properties, the structure is subjected to electric field for intelligent control. The Column is located in foundation with vertical springs and shear modulus constants. Sinusoidal shear deformation beam theory (SSDBT) is applied to model the structure mathematically. Micro-electro-mechanic model is utilized for obtaining the equivalent properties of system. Using the nonlinear stress-strain relation, energy method and Hamilton's principal, the motion equations are derived. The buckling load of the column is calculated by Difference quadrature method (DQM). The aim of this study is presenting a mathematical model to obtain the buckling load of structure as well as investigating the effect of nanotechnology and electric filed on the buckling behavior of structure. The results indicate that the negative external voltage applied to the structure, increases the stiffness and the buckling load of column. In addition, reinforcing the structure by ZnO nanoparticles, the buckling load of column is increased.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2011

Contamination of soils, groundwater, air and marine environment with hazardous and toxic chemicals is major side effect by the industrialization. Bioremediation, the application of microorganism or microbial processes to degrade environmental contaminant, is one of the new environmental technologies. Because of low water solubility and volatility of diesel, bioremediation is more efficient than physical and chemical methods. The purpose of this study is biodegradation of diesel in sand by using Rhodococcus fascians, a microorganism isolated from petroleum contaminated soil. This study was performed in the column containing sand obtained from sea sides. Changes in biodegradability of diesel with various flow rates, inoculum sizes, diesel concentrations, and pH were investigated in sand column. The optimal condition for biodegradation of diesel by R. fascians in sand column system was initial pH 8 and air flow rate of 30 mL/min. Higher diesel degradation was achieved at larger inoculum size and the diesel degradation by R. fascians was not inhibited by diesel concentration up to 5%.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.719-734
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• 2018

Prior to the introduction of modern seismic guidelines, it was a common practice to provide straight bar anchorage for beam bottom reinforcement of gravity load designed building. Exterior joints with straight bar anchorages for beam bottom reinforcements are susceptible to sudden anchorage failure under load reversals and hence require systematic seismic upgradation. Hence in the present study, an attempt is made to upgrade exterior beam-column sub-assemblage of a three storied gravity load designed (GLD) building with single steel haunch. Analytical formulations are presented for evaluating the haunch forces in single steel haunch retrofit. Influence of parameters that affect the efficacy and effectiveness of the single haunch retrofit are also discussed. The effectiveness of the single haunch retrofit for enhancing seismic performance of GLD beam-column specimen is evaluated through experimental investigation under reverse cyclic loading. The single steel haunch retrofit had succeeded in preventing the anchorage failure of beam bottom bars of GLD specimen, delaying the joint shear damage and partially directing the damage towards the beam. A remarkable improvement in the load carrying capacity of the upgraded GLD beam-column sub-assemblage is observed. Further, a tremendous improvement in the energy dissipation of about 2.63 times that of GLD specimen is observed in the case of upgraded GLD specimen. The study also underlines the efficacy of single steel haunch retrofit for seismic upgradation of deficient GLD structures.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.395-402
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• 2018

Floor location of adjacent buildings may be different in terms of height elevation, and thus, the slab may hit on the columns of adjacent insufficiently separated buildings during severe ground motions. Such impacts, often referred to as mid-column pounding, can be catastrophic. Substantial pounding damage or even total collapse of structures was often observed in large amount of adjacent low rise buildings. The research on the mid-column pounding between low rise buildings is in urgency need. In present study, the responses of two adjacent low rise buildings with unequal heights and different dynamic properties have been analyzed. Parametric studies have also been conducted to assess the influence of story height difference, gap distance and input direction of ground motion on the effect of structural pounding response. Another emphasis of this study is to analyze the near-fault effect, which is important for the structures located in the near-fault area. The analysis results show that collisions exhibit significant influence on the local shear force response of the column suffering impact. Because of asymmetric configuration of systems, the structural seismic behavior is distinct by varying the incident directions of the ground motions. Results also show that near-fault earthquakes induced ground motions can cause more significant effect on the pounding responses.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.261-279
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• 2010

Generally, a box tube, which is used for an existing square CFT structure, is made by welding four plates. The manufacturing efficiency of this steel tube is poor, and it also needs special welding technology to weld its internal diaphragm and the through diaphragm. Therefore, an interior-anchor-type square steel tube was developed using the method of cold-forming thin plates to prevent welding of the stress concentration position, and to maximize the section efficiency. And, considering of the flow of beam flange load, the efficiency of erection and the weldability of the diaphragm to thin walled steel column, the external diaphragm connection was selected as the suitable type for the welded built-up square CFT column to beam connection. And, an analytical study and tests were conducted to evaluate the structural performance of the suggested connection details and to verify the suggested equations for the connection details. Through this study, the composite effect of the internal anchor to concrete, the resistance and stress distribution of the connections before and after the existing column is welded to the beam, the effective location of welding in connection were analyzed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2018

This paper reports an experimental study that was accomplished to assess the seismic behavior of steel tube reinforced concrete bridge columns (SBCs). The motivation of this study was to verify a supposition that the core steel tube may be terminated at a rational position in the column to minimize the material cost while maintaining the seismic behavior of this composite column. Four SBC specimens were tested under combined constant axial load and cyclic reversed lateral loads. The unique variable in the test matrix was the core steel tube embedment length, which ranged from 1/3 to 3/3 of the column effective height. It is observed that SBCs showed two distinctly different failure patterns, namely brittle shear failure and ductile flexural failure. Tests results indicate that the hysteretic responses of SBCs were susceptible to the core steel tube embedment length. With the increase of this structural parameter, the lateral strength of SBC was progressively improved; the deformability and ductility, however, exhibited a tendency of first increase and then decrease. It is also found that in addition to maintained the rate of stiffness degradation and cumulative energy dissipation basically unchanged, both the ductility and deformability of SBC were significantly improved when the core steel tube was terminated at the mid-height of the column, and these were the most unexpected benefits accompanied with material cost reduction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.303-317
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• 2006

The connection with combined cross diaphragm is developed for the connection of square CFT column and steel beam and proposed to be used for the frame with asymmetric span length. The structural characteristics of this connection lie in the penetration of the beam flange in the direction of major axis through the column for the smooth flow of stress. The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamic behavior and stress flow of suggested connection and to evaluate the resistance to shock of connection. Four T-type CFT column-to-beam specimens; two with combined cross diaphragm and the others with interior and through diaphragms, the existing connection types, were made for cyclic load test guided by the load program of ANSI/AISC SSPEC 2002. The results show that the proposed connection is more efficient than existing ones in terms of strength, stress flow and energy absorption and satisfies the seismic performance required in the region of weak/moderate earthquakes.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.5984-5989
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• 2011

The buckling strength of a pin-ended column may be increased significantly by reinforcing it with an assemblage of cross-arm members rigidly connected to the modpoint of the column and stayed members connecting the ends of the columns and cross-arm members. The purpose of the stays and cross-arm members is to introduce restraint against translation and rotation and thereby decrease the effective buckling length of the column. In this study, buckling strengths of the reinforced columns were quantitatively evaluated from analytical solutions and elastic/inelastic finite elements analysis and the results were compared each other. It was found that the reinforcing system may increase the buckling strength up to 8 times compared to ones without reinforcing system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.177-191
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• 2017

In the present study, exterior beam column sub-assemblages are designed in accordance with the codal stipulations prevailed at different times prior to the introduction of modern seismic provisions, viz., i) Gravity load designed with straight bar anchorage (SP1), ii) Gravity load designed with compression anchorage (SP1-D), iii) designed for seismic load but not detailed for ductility (SP2), and iv) designed for seismic load and detailed for ductility (SP3). Comparative seismic performance of these exterior beam-column sub-assemblages are evaluated through experimental investigations carried out under repeated reverse cyclic loading. Seismic performance parameters like load-displacement hysteresis behavior, energy dissipation, strength and stiffness degradation, and joint shear deformation of the specimens are evaluated. It is found from the experimental studies that with the evolution of the design methods, from gravity load designed to non-ductile and then to ductile detailed specimens, a marked improvement in damage resilience is observed. The gravity load designed specimens SP1 and SP1-D respectively dissipated only one-tenth and one-sixth of the energy dissipated by SP3. The specimen SP3 showcased tremendous improvement in the energy dissipation capacity of nearly 2.56 times that of SP2. Irrespective of the level of design and detailing, energy dissipation is finally manifested through the damage in the joint region. The present study underlines the seismic deficiency of beam-column sub-assemblages of different design evolutions and highlights the need for their strengthening/retrofit to make them fit for seismic event.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.635-645
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• 2018

Beam-column joints play a significant role in static and dynamic performances of reinforced concrete frame structures. This study contributes a numerical approach of topologically optimal design of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) to retrofit existing beam-column connections with crack patterns. In recent, CFRP is used commonly in the rehabilitation and strengthening of concrete members due to the remarkable properties, such as lightweight, anti-corrosion and simplicity to execute construction. With the target to provide an optimal CFRP configuration to effectively retrofit the beam-column connection under semi-failure situation such as given cracks, extended finite element method (X-FEM) is used by combining with multi-material topology optimization (MTO) as a mechanical description approach for strong discontinuity state to mechanically model cracked structures. The well founded mathematical formulation of topology optimization problem for cracked structures by using multiple materials is described in detail in this study. In addition, moved and regularized Heaviside functions (MRHF), that have the role of a filter in multiple materials case, is also considered. The numerical example results illustrated in two cases of beam-column joints with stationary cracks verify the validity, benefit and supremacy of the proposed method.